"Marc Almond, clad in eyeliner and jewellery, delivering his vocal with a weird combination of intense passion, high camp and occasional knowing looks to camera: he was clearly a gay man, but a gay man who declined to conform to the pantomime stereotype that still prevailed on British TV, a decision that first upset his own record company boss who collared Almond backstage and protested you've got to butch it up a bit! then apparently caused the BBC's switchboards to light up."
"Almond was such an arresting presence that it was easy to overlook the other guy on stage, moustachioed, mute and virtually motionless behind his keyboard. But, as his bandmate was given to pointing out, overlooking Dave Ball was a terrible misjudgement. He really was a psycho, Almond later recalled. There would be times when he'd leap from behind the keyboards if someone was threatening me on stage, and he'd punch someone in the front row."
Soft Cell's first Top of the Pops appearance on 13 August 1981 generated both commercial success and controversy, sending 'Tainted Love' into the Top Ten and then No 1, becoming the second biggest-selling single of the year. Marc Almond performed in eyeliner and jewellery with intense passion, high camp and occasional knowing camera looks, visibly queer and refusing to conform to pantomime stereotypes, which upset his record company boss and prompted BBC complaints. Dave Ball, often overlooked onstage, provided crucial musical contributions, drawing on northern soul influences and crafting the synth hook by percussively emphasising the bassline's first two notes. Ball's childhood love of John Barry soundtracks also shaped the duo's sound.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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